On The Translator's Subjectivity In The English Translation Of San Ti From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics

On August 23rd,2015,Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin became the first Asian crowned the Hugo Award for The Three-Body Problem,the English version of his masterpiece San Ti,which means the final success of Chinese science fiction despite twists and turns along its course.Apart from the magnificent vision as well as excellent plot of the original text,this amazing success should also be attributed to the efforts of the translator Ken Liu.Originating from the western world,science fiction has trapped in a peripheral status for quite a long time;as a consequence,there are few translation studies on this type of literature.Against this backdrop,it is no wonder that The Three-Body Problem,which was published in November 2014,only attracts a very limited attention despite its huge success in the international community.The present few studies on The Three-Body Problem,however,mainly concentrates on the analysis of its translation effects,with the translator's subjectivity barely mentioned or touched upon.Since the "culture turn" in the 1970s,translators have gradually broken away from the original "invisible" state,thus their subjectivity began to attract more and more scholar's concern and research attention.Under the guidance of Steiner's hermenutic motion,this paper intends to reveal Ken's subjectivity embodied in his translation of San Ti through substantial examples extracted from the The Three-Body Problem.Based on the comparative study of The Three-Body Problem and its original text,this paper finally concludes that Ken fully displays his subjectivity in the whole translation process by rearranging the original chapters and paragraphs as well as employing various skills to enable his translation both faithful and comprehensible.This thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter one is an introduction in which issues such as research background,research questions,research significance as well as research methodology will all be covered.Chapter two will put forward a research necessity of the translator's subjectivity grounded on the summary of previous studies on the source text,San Ti,and its author as well as the target text,The Three-Body Problem,and its translator.Chapter three elaborates on hermeneutics,translator's subjectivity and the intrinsic relations between the two.George Steiner's four-fold hermeneutic motion will be especially expounded in this chapter,because his motion will be the theoretical framework propping up the next chapter.Chapter four,the most vital part of this thesis,is a case study on the translators' subjectivity of the English translation of San Ti from the perspective of hermeneutics.In the light of Steiner's four-fold motion,this part will carefully examine the translator's subjectivity in trust,aggression,incorporation and restitution.Translation strategies refined from textual analysis in this research will also be included in this chapter.Chapter five comes to the final conclusion that the full play of Ken Liu's subjectivity is what makes The Three-Body Problem against all odds become widely recognized and finally stand out as an epoch-making masterpiece from the rest in the global science fiction arena.